Ukraine faces backlash for ‘death’
Journalist resurfaces at Kiev press conference
Ukraine was under fire Thursday after it admitted staging the murder of anti-Kremlin journalist Arkady Babchenko, despite relief in Russia and Ukraine that he was alive.
Babchenko made a shock reappearance at a press conference in Kiev on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the Ukrainian authorities reported he had been shot dead at his home in a contract-style killing blamed on Russia.
Ukraine’s security services said his death was faked to foil an assassination plot by Moscow, but Russian officials reacted with anger to what they branded an “anti-Russian provocation.”
The operation fooled the world’s media and angered press freedom groups which raised fears about the impact it could have on the work of journalists around the globe.
“There can be no grounds for faking a journalist’s death,” the head of Reporters Without Borders Christophe Deloire said Wednesday, describing it as a “pathetic stunt.”
“The first question is to what extent were there no alternatives to saving Babchenko’s life in this way,” analyst Igor Yakovenko wrote on his blog, adding there would inevitably be consequences to the highprofile fakery.
An editorial in Russian daily Vedomosti argued the Babchenko operation “blurred the border between truth and fiction” and would lead to more distrust in the media.
Several Western commentators and reporters said it would be difficult to trust official statements from Ukraine again.
Babchenko, who told the press he had been preparing to stage his death with secret services for several weeks, dismissed the criticism.
“I wish all these moralizers could be in the same situation – let them show their adherence to the principles of their high morals and die proudly holding their heads high without misleading the media,” he wrote on Facebook.
Other commentators urged the media to focus on the fact that Babchenko is alive.
“The main thing is that the killing of a journalist was foiled, the organizers are caught and the journalist is alive,” said Russian political commentator Evgeny Roizman.